Hetzner Cloud Networks Configuration

Last change on 2025-03-13 • Created on 2020-07-02 • ID: CL-96759

All our Cloud Server images automatically contain the hc-utils package, which ensures that private network interfaces will be automatically configured using DHCP. It provides an hc-net-ifup@.service systemd service, which starts the DHCP client (currently dhcpcd), when a new private network interface has been detected. If you rather want to use manual configuration options, this service should be disabled entirely or at least for the respective network interfaces, so no additional DHCP client will be started. The procedure is described in the chapter Uninstalling or deactivating the auto-configuration package.

Installation of the auto-configuration package

Download the latest version of hc-utils for your OS and your architecture on: https://packages.hetzner.com/hcloud/

On Debian based distributions (Ubuntu, Debian)

  • Ubuntu 24.04
curl https://packages.hetzner.com/hcloud/deb/hc-utils_0.0.6-1_all.deb -o /tmp/hc-utils_0.0.6-1_all.deb -s
apt install /tmp/hc-utils_0.0.6-1_all.deb
  • Debian, Ubuntu 20.04 or older
curl https://packages.hetzner.com/hcloud/deb/hc-utils_0.0.5-1_all.deb -o /tmp/hc-utils_0.0.5-1_all.deb -s
apt install /tmp/hc-utils_0.0.5-1_all.deb

On RHEL based distributions (Alma, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky)

  • Alma/CentOS/Rocky 7

    curl https://packages.hetzner.com/hcloud/rpm/hc-utils-0.0.3-1.el7.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/hc-utils-0.0.3-1.el7.noarch.rpm -s
yum install /tmp/hc-utils-0.0.3-1.el7.noarch.rpm

  • Alma/CentOS/Rocky 8 / 9

    curl https://packages.hetzner.com/hcloud/rpm/hc-utils-0.0.4-1.el8.noarch.rpm -o /tmp/hc-utils-0.0.4-1.el8.noarch.rpm -s
yum install /tmp/hc-utils-0.0.4-1.el8.noarch.rpm

  • Fedora

    dnf install https://packages.hetzner.com/hcloud/rpm/hc-utils-0.0.4-1.fc37.noarch.rpm

Uninstalling or deactivating the auto-configuration package

If you do not want to use the automatic configuration, uninstall the hc-utils package or deactivate it for the corresponding network interface. Otherwise there's a risk, that two DHCP clients will compete over the configuration, which will cause side effects or outages.

Uninstalling the auto-configuration package

  • On Debian based distributions (Ubuntu, Debian):

    apt remove hc-utils

  • On RHEL based distributions (Alma, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky)

    dnf remove hc-utils

Deactivating auto-configuration

You can deactivate the auto-configuration for a network interface by deactivating and masking the hc-net-ifup service for the respective interface. Please replace interface with the value for your network.

systemctl stop hc-net-ifup@interface.service
systemctl mask hc-net-ifup@interface.service

CentOS 7

Network interface names:

Network Name
First attached network eth1
Additional interfaces (second) eth2
Additional interfaces (third) eth3

To deactivate the auto-configuration for the first private network interface, stop and mask the hc-net-ifup service for the eth1 interface.

systemctl stop hc-net-ifup@eth1.service
systemctl mask hc-net-ifup@eth1.service

Debian / Ubuntu, Fedora, Alma/CentOS/Rocky 8 oder höher

Network interface names:

Network CX*1, CCX*1 CX*2, CPX, CAX, CCX*2, CCX*3
First attached network ens10 enp7s0
Additional interfaces (second) ens11 enp8s0
Additional interfaces (third) ens12 enp9s0

To deactivate the auto-configuration for the first private network interface, stop and mask the hc-net-ifup service for the enp7s0 interface.

systemctl stop hc-net-ifup@enp7s0.service
systemctl mask hc-net-ifup@enp7s0.service

Manual configuration via DHCP

If you do not want to use the automatic configuration, uninstall the hc-utils package or deactivate it for the corresponding network interface (see the previous section). Otherwise there's a risk, that two DHCP clients will compete over the configuration, which will cause side effects or outages.

Debian / Ubuntu

Network interface names:

Network CX*1, CCX*1 CX*2, CPX, CAX, CCX*2, CCX*3
First attached network ens10 enp7s0
Additional interfaces (second) ens11 enp8s0
Additional interfaces (third) ens12 enp9s0

Debian (ifupdown)

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/61-my-private-network.cfg

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor:

    • CX*1 and CCX*1 (Intel)

      auto ens10
iface ens10 inet dhcp

    • CX*2 (Intel), CAX (ARM), CPX, CCX*2, and CCX*3 (AMD)

      auto enp7s0
iface enp7s0 inet dhcp

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo service networking restart

Ubuntu (netplan)

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/netplan/60-my-private-network.yaml

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor:

    • CX*1 and CCX*1 (Intel)

      network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    ens10:
      dhcp4: true

    • CX*2 (Intel), CAX (ARM), CPX, CCX*2, CCX*3 (AMD)

      network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp7s0:
      dhcp4: true

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

On RHEL based distributions (Alma, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky)

CentOS 7

Network interface names:

Network Name
First attached network eth1
Additional interfaces (second) eth2
Additional interfaces (third) eth3

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens10

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor:

    DEVICE=ens10
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    systemctl restart network

Alma/CentOS/Rocky 8 or higher, Fedora

Network interface names:

Network CX*1, CCX*1 CX*2, CAX, CPX, CCX*2, CCX*3
First attached network ens10 enp7s0
Additional interfaces (second) ens11 enp8s0
Additional interfaces (third) ens12 enp9s0

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp7s0.nmconnection:

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor:

    [connection]
id=enp7s0
uuid=<insert a uuid!!>
type=ethernet

[ethernet]
mac-address=<insert the HWADDR of your private networks interface!!>

[ipv4]
method=auto
may-fail=false

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    systemctl restart NetworkManager

Manual configuration of alias IPs

Debian / Ubuntu

Network interface names:

Network CX*1, CCX*1 CX*2, CPX, CAX, CCX*2, CCX*3
First attached network ens10 enp7s0
Additional interfaces (second) ens11 enp8s0
Additional interfaces (third) ens12 enp9s0

Debian (ifupdown)

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/61-my-private-network.cfg

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor and replace your.ali.as.IP with one of the alias IPs. Keep in mind to increase the identifier by one when using more alias IPs.

    auto ens10:1
iface ens10:1 inet static
   address your.ali.as.IP
   netmask 32

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo service networking restart

Ubuntu (netplan)

We suggest that you uninstall the hc-utils package, or deactivate it for the respective network interface (see section Uninstalling or deactivating the auto-configuration package). Otherwise a DHCP client will keep being started automatically, which will cause side effects or outages.

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/netplan/60-my-private-network.yaml

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor:

    • CX*1 and CCX*1 (Intel)

      network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    ens10:
      dhcp4: true
      addresses:
        - your.ali.as.IP/32

    • CX*2 (Intel), CAX (ARM), CPX, CCX*2, CCX*3 (AMD)

      network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp7s0:
      dhcp4: true
      addresses:
        - your.ali.as.IP/32

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

On RHEL based distributions (Alma, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky)

CentOS 7

Network interface names:

Network Interface Name
First attached network eth1
Additional interfaces (second) eth2
Additional interfaces (third) eth3

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1:0

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor and replace your.ali.as.IP with one of the alias IPs. Keep in mind to increase the identifier by one when using more alias IPs.

    BOOTPROTO=static
DEVICE=eth1:0
IPADDR=your.ali.as.IP
PREFIX=32
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    systemctl restart network

Alma/CentOS/Rocky 8 or higher, Fedora

We suggest that you uninstall the hc-utils package, or deactivate it for the respective network interface (see section Uninstalling or deactivating the auto-configuration package). Otherwise a DHCP client will keep being started automatically, which will cause side effects or outages.

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp7s0.nmconnection

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor and change the uuid, mac-address and IP.

    [connection]
id=enp7s0
uuid=<keep the UUID as is!!>
type=ethernet

[ethernet]
mac-address=<keep the HWADDR as is!!>

[ipv4]
method=auto
address2=<your alias ip>/32
may-fail=false

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo service NetworkManager restart

Manual static configuration

Please note: Each private interface of a cloud server is automatically assigned an IP address and connections to the private network only work with this assigned IP address. When configuring the network manually please make sure to use the server's IP address as shown in the Cloud Console/API.

We suggest that you uninstall the hc-utils package, or deactivate it for the respective network interface (see section Uninstalling or deactivating the auto-configuration package). Otherwise a DHCP client will keep being started automatically, which will cause side effects or outages.

On Debian based distributions (Ubuntu, Debian):

Network interface names:

Network CX*1, CCX*1 CX*2, CAX, CPX, CCX*2, CCX*3
First attached network ens10 enp7s0
Additional interfaces (second) ens11 enp8s0
Additional interfaces (third) ens12 enp9s0

Debian (ifupdown)

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/61-my-private-network.cfg

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor and replace private.address.ofThe.CloudServer, gateway.of.the.network and net.work.ip.range with the values of your network.

    auto ens10
iface ens10 inet static
   address private.address.ofThe.CloudServer
   netmask 255.255.255.255
   mtu 1450
   pointopoint gateway.of.the.network
   post-up ip route add net.work.ip.range via gateway.of.the.network dev ens10

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo service networking restart

Ubuntu (netplan)

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/netplan/60-my-private-network.yaml

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor:

    • CX*1 and CCX*1 (Intel)

      network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    ens10:
      addresses:
        - private.IP/32
      routes:
        - to: net.work.ip.range
          via: gateway.of.the.network
          on-link: true

    • CX*2 (Intel), CAX (ARM), CPX, CCX*2, CCX*3 (AMD)

      network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp7s0:
      addresses:
        - private.IP/32
      routes:
        - to: net.work.ip.range
          via: gateway.of.the.network
          on-link: true

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

On RHEL based distributions (Alma, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky)

CentOS 7

Network interface names:

Network Name
First attached network eth0
Additional interfaces (second) eth1
Additional interfaces (third) eth2

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens10

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor and replace the private.address.ofThe.CloudServer with the private network IP of your server.

    BOOTPROTO=static
DEVICE=ens10
MTU=1450
IPADDR=private.address.ofThe.CloudServer
PREFIX=32
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes

  3. Open the route configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-ens10

  4. Paste the following configuration into the editor and replace private.address.ofThe.CloudServer, gateway.of.the.network and net.work.ip.range with the values of your network.

    gateway.of.the.network/32 via 0.0.0.0 dev ens10 scope link
net.work.ip.range via gateway.of.the.network dev ens10

  5. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    systemctl restart network

Alma/CentOS/Rocky 8 or higher, Fedora

Network interface names:

Network CX*1, CCX*1 CX*2, CAX, CPX, CCX*2, CCX*3
First attached network ens10 enp7s0
Additional interfaces (second) ens11 enp8s0
Additional interfaces (third) ens12 enp9s0

  1. Open the configuration file with an editor:

    vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp7s0.nmconnection

  2. Paste the following configuration into the editor and change it to your needs.

    [connection]
id=enp7s0
uuid=<keep the UUID as is!!>
type=ethernet

[ethernet]
mac-address=<keep the HWADDR as is!!>

[ipv4]
address1=<your Private IPv4 address>/32,<your private networks gateway>
may-fail=false
method=manual

  3. Now you should restart your network. Caution: This will reset your network connection.

    systemctl restart NetworkManager

Manual Configuration for Windows based systems

  1. Access the server via RDP or HTML5 console.

  2. Open an elevated CMD.

  3. Print the interface list and get the interface ID of interface Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter #2.

    route print ?

    It should look like this:

    Interface List
3...xx xx xx xx xx xx ......Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter
5...xx xx xx xx xx xx ......Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter #2
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
2...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
4...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
7...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2

  4. Add the static routes to interface by replacing mask.of.network.range, gateway.of.the.network and net.work.ip.range with the values of your network.

    route add -p gateway.of.the.network 0.0.0.0 if 5
route add -p net.work.ip.range mask mask.of.network.range gateway.of.the.network if 5

  5. Check the interface name for the static configuration:

    netsh interface ip show config

    The output should look something like this:

    Configuration for interface "Ethernet"
   DHCP enabled:                         Yes
   IP Address:                           xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   Subnet Prefix:                        xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/32 (mask 255.255.255.255)
   Default Gateway:                      172.31.1.1
   Gateway Metric:                       0
   InterfaceMetric:                      5
   DNS servers configured through DHCP:  185.12.64.1
                                         185.12.64.2
   Register with which suffix:           Primary only
   WINS servers configured through DHCP: None
Configuration for interface "Ethernet 2"
   DHCP enabled:                         Yes
   IP Address:                           private.address.ofThe.CloudServer
   Subnet Prefix:                        private.address.ofThe.CloudServer/32 (mask 255.255.255.255)
   Default Gateway:                      gateway.of.the.network
   Gateway Metric:                       0
   InterfaceMetric:                      5
   DNS servers configured through DHCP:  None
   Register with which suffix:           Primary only
   WINS servers configured through DHCP: None
Configuration for interface "Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1"
   DHCP enabled:                         No
   IP Address:                           127.0.0.1
   Subnet Prefix:                        127.0.0.0/8 (mask 255.0.0.0)
   InterfaceMetric:                      75
   Statically Configured DNS Servers:    None
   Register with which suffix:           None
   Statically Configured WINS Servers:   None

  6. Set the IP address to interface:

    netsh interface ipv4 set address name="Ethernet 2" static private.address.ofThe.CloudServer 255.255.255.255 gateway.of.the.network 1
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